The author presents six months of close personal association with Abraham Lincoln, assembling fragmentary but factual daily observations, anecdotes, and corroborated contributions to sketch his private thoughts, habits, moods, and moral temperament during the wartime presidency. The narrative blends reminiscence, descriptive episodes, and reflections on emancipation, leadership, and character, emphasizing humility, integrity, and intellectual growth while avoiding hagiography, and aiming to illuminate the private motives and inner struggles behind public decisions.